Growing indoor plants is addictive. Once you’ve got one it’s hard to stop, and before you know it you’re starting to look at every room in your home as a potential growing space. But your desire for more plants can rapidly outpace your budget.
Fortunately, there’s a simple way to get more indoor plants for next to nothing.
Propagating indoor plants is a simple way to create new plants from existing ones. This means accumulating even more plants, and it allow you to give them to other people and share your obsession.
There’s three basic ways to propagate indoor plants;
- division
- cuttings (leaf and stem)
- air layering.
Division
Division is the simplest method of propagation for indoor plants. However, it can’t be used for all indoor plants. Some plants will have underground rhizomes, runners or bulbs that they use to store water and energy, and to spread and grow. We can split these from the ‘mother’ plant, and use them to form new, ready-made plants of their own. Examples include sansevieria (snake plant) and chlorophytum (spider plant)
To divide, simply unpot the plant, carefully splitting the root mass in half with your hands (ensuring some of these tubers end up in both clumps) and then repotting each clump into a new pot with some fresh mix. Keep the watering lighter at this stage to avoid rot, but don’t let it dry out completely. Over the next few months both parts will grow new roots and establish into their own plants.
Cuttings
The next way to propagate is via cuttings. Take a stem of a plant that’s not too young and not too old, and cut it just below a ‘node’. A node is an interval in a stem where leaves appear. Make sure your cut is a clean one, and sterilise your cutting scissors beforehand. You’re aiming for a cutting about the length of your index finger. This method will work for indoor stalwart plants like ficus, Syngonium, devil’s ivy and philodendron. This method is how large-scale production nurseries produce hundreds of thousands of indoor plants every year!
Pot your new cutting up in propagation mix or perlite, with the cut end well below the mix and water in. Place in a bright spot out of direct sun and check the water every day and keep it consistently damp but not wet.
When you see roots poking out the bottom of the pot (likely after a few months), your new plant is ready to be potted up.
Air layering
The third method for propagating indoor plants is called ‘air layering’. It’s the most technical but can give you the most impressive results.
Some plants will naturally start to produce roots from their stems if given the right conditions (called aerial roots), without being separated from the mother. It works well for climbing plants such as philodendrons and monstera.
Air layering can be as simple as preparing a new pot next to your existing plant, and training a leggy vine onto that pot to be pinned down and take root. When it takes root, the vine to the mother plant can be cut to form a separate plant.
For plants that are less flexible, you can bundle a small amount of dampened coconut fibre and perlite around a plant stem with cling film.
Over the coming weeks, the plant should be triggered to grow out the existing aerial roots. Once you can see them through the clear wrapping, you can sever the mother plant below the wrapping and take away your newly formed plant.
Propagating indoor plants is a great way to share the love of gardening with friends. With these easy, cheap and DIY methods you’re sure to be running your own personal production nursery in no time!
Do you propagate your own plants? Do you have any tips to add? Why not share them in the comments section below?
Also read: How to avoid injury in the garden
